Morning journal and courier., 1887-08-18
rHE REIGN OF THE CORSET
It Came in with Grecian Mythology and
Still Maintains Its Sway.

Still Maintains Its Sway.
[From the London Telegraph
Jean Jacques Rousseau, with all the power
of his genius and all the warmth of the in
terest which he took in youth, exposed the
lamentable corruption of taste which asserts
that the figure is excellent in proportion to
the waist The philosopher of Geneva ex-
ercised more social influence perhaps in his
time than any writer in Europe, and for O
while stage went out of fashion in France
Stiff corsets were still worn by the ladies
of the old court, but sensible mothers came
to common agreement that their daueh-
ters should subject themselves to this vol
untary punishment at as late q period as
possible, and not until their Wedding day
were they allowed to wear stays.
The revolution swept away the corset alto
gether, as well as hoop petticoats, but stays
again made their appearance toward the end
of the first empire. A very harmless affair
scarcely broader than the ffasciae mamil,
| lares' of the Romans, was the imperial bod
| ice. for waists were then worn excessively
short, and the stays were without busks,
stiff pieces OF whalebone or steel plates
| Modified, however, as they were, the strong
common sense of Napoleon revolted against
the introduction of the garment ''Corvi.
sart," said the ruler, whose business it was
| to know everything, to his physician, fsthe
corset is coquetry of the worst taste; it tor
lures women and ma1treats their progeny; it
means friyolity; it heralds decadence"
These words were full of sagacity, but
when the mysterious DEGREES of fashion-de-
crees which are as occult as those of fate
brought about the revival of long waists,
tight stays became more the mode, and the
female chest was bruised by that dreadful
instrument of torture, the steel busk, which
had originally been brought into France in
1882 by Catherine de Medici. The busk was
long, fiat, rigid strip of wood or whale
bone, and sometimes of metal Medical
warnings, satire, sermons, edicts of police
were in vain.
On the authority of the most eminent
physicians and surgeons of the last two gen
erations it may be stated that in the head
tight lacing produces giddiness, headache,
pain in the eyes, ringing in the ears and
bleeding at the nose. Habitual tight Iaeing
will provoke the most undesirable addition
to the female complexion-a red nose. Tight
lacing is quite as nischieyous in the region
of the thorax, to which it gives false sup
port, impeding the development of the nat
ural support. 1t displaces the bones, de-
ranges the circulation, induces scirrhus in
the mammary glands and ultimately cancer;
and it is a tolerably sure provocation of lung
disease, palpitation of the heart and water
in the chest. In the abdominal region tight
lacing may be reckoned upon with tolerable
confidence to bring about loss of appetite,
squeamishness, indigestion, induration of the
liver, melancholia, dropsy and rupture.
Campin closely associated tight Iacing with
squirting; Bonnaud said that it led to poly
pus; Platner maintained that to tight lacing
mothers unhealthy children were born; Jo-
sephi warned the lovers of stiff corsets that
their children would be ugly; Wormes re-
marked that one of the triiing inconvenien-
ces of tight lacing was swollen feet and
Winslow showed that there was an intimate
connection between tight lacing, curvature
of the spine and hunchback
Every scholar is aware that stays are arti-
cles of attire of the very highest antiquity
and that the cestus of Agale was practically
corset. Some antiquarians have even con-
tended that the girdle which Juno wore
when she wished to appear her 1oveliest in
the eyes of Jupiter was pair of stays. The
Empress Messalina was wont to have her
body cravat adjusted very tightly before she
proceeded to pass happy evening in the su-
burTa, while in the reign of Augustus an
improved corset was introduced called a
"castula;" it fitted closely to the form and
had the agreeable addition of a dress impro-
yer.
The ladies' stays of the middle ages were
known 'Ejustaucorps," and subsequently
as "cotteshardies;" but Isabeau de Baviere,
the consort of Charles VI. of France, totally
repudiated stays, and besides laid it down as
sumptuary canon that there should be as
little drapery as possible between the neck
lace and the lace When the italian Gather
inc brought in the execrable busk, which
was first of wood or of ivory, the corset
successive1y developed in rigidity and obdu-
racy. 1t became cage, it became cuirass,
and it had to be so tightly laced that, the
muscular power of the ordinary ''femme de
chambre" being inadequate to the pulley
hauling required, the court ladies used to
send for the strongest of the Forts de la
Halle to tug at their stay laces, and even
these athletic creatures could not accomplish
their task to the entire satisfaction of their
fashionable employers without pressing one
foot firmly against the bedpost in order to
obtain the necessary purchase or leverage
The corsets of the present day, whether they
be machine made or hand fashioned from
accurate measurement of the customer, inva-
Iiably present the same general characteris-
tics Of fastening in front and profusely
boned at the sides; while at the back there is
that disastrous interstice, with its permanent
criss- cross lacing, which can be pulled and
hauled at until the vain and silly wearer
commits constructive suicide.